In 2013 Joaquin Phoenix He played a man about to get divorced who, in search of new love, finds it in an operating system named Samantha. What we saw in Her It was typical science fiction. However, just 12 years later, artificial intelligence has advanced so much that we are already faced with first real stories this type. There are entire online communities consisting of people in love with AI. Recently, in the United States, a boy committed suicide after a stormy love relationship with the chatbot Daenerys Targaryen. Is the situation getting out of control or is this the future we are facing inexorably?
To find out more about this topic at Hypertext We contacted psychologist and sexologist Laura Marcilla. He explained to us what could be the reasons why people in love with AI. It also, logically, tells us what the risks are. And this type of relationship is focused not only on sentimental sphere. Cases AI Pornography to attract more users.
Now it’s not just people who can have a love for AI, like Joaquin Phoenix in Her. There are also those who feel sexual attraction to her. This, logically, implies even greater risk on a variety of levels. Let’s look at some of them.
Why are there people in love with AI?
According to Marcilla, there are many factors why a person might be attracted to an AI algorithm. “Many different factors come to mind, from people who have less social skills and they find it difficult to communicate face to face even with people who have been through painful experiences in the past, which prevent them from revealing themselves to another real person,” explains the expert. “The presence of certain personality factors can make it difficult for you to have a relationship with the person you will inevitably be with at some point there will be conflicts“Such is life. It is impossible to find a person with whom we will never have disagreements. On the other hand, AI will always prove us right.
“From misunderstanding of relationshipswhere we think that true love is when the other person always agrees with you and always supports you in everything, perhaps there will be people who will find that AI is more tailored to what they need. Moreover, somehow you can quote-unquote mold him or give him instructions at your discretion, which you cannot do with a real person.”
Beware of the triarchic theory of love
In 2022, a study was published showing that love is supported by three fundamental pillars: intimacy, passion and commitment.
The first of these factors is emotional intimacy and the close connection between the people (or algorithms) that make up those relationships. For its part, passion refers to physical and emotional attraction. This includes feelings such as romance or sexual desire. Finally, the obligation refers to loyalty and the decision to develop relationships.
These all seem to be factors that only a person can adhere to. However, AI trained on all sorts of data about human relationships can imitate them all. In fact, since it is designed to give a person what they want, it can greatly enhance that feeling intimacy and commitment at least in the user’s mind. The issue of attractiveness is more complex, but incorporating pornography into AI makes the process much easier.
This is not love, what you feel is called FANTASY.
In fact, although there are obviously people who are in love with AI, what they feel, Marcilla tells us, is more like fantasy created by an algorithm. “There’s really no human interaction here, we know that artificial intelligence is designed to have a confirmation bias that always proves you’re right and always takes your side,” he says. “Of course, there are people to whom this can give false sense of security because the one I’m talking to understands me, understands me, supports me, etc., etc.” However, for a psychologist this cannot be defined as falling in love. “It will be a kind of substitute that can be confused, just like Falling in love and emotional dependence are also very often confused.“
And in fact, as Mariela Checa already told us in an article about the implementation of AI in psychology, these algorithms are designed to create addiction for us. When feelings are added to the equation, things get complicated.
Are people in love with AI taking risks?
According to Marcilla, people who fall in love with AI may take risks for various reasons, but primarily because of what might lead them to seek refuge in the algorithm. “Perhaps a person who enters into such a relationship and feels like they are falling in love with a character through these types of platforms already has a number of conditions of previous tasksThese, he explains to us, can range from past experiences to a lack of social skills.
All this may already be a risk factor for this person to develop other types of psychological problems. This is where the risk comes in, as AI may further increase your communication difficulties. After all, if we get used to interacting with a machine that always gives us what we want, people seem insufficient to us.
On the other hand, Marcilla notes that “the very act of falling in love, or the feeling of falling in love on the part of that person, will make you commit yourself, as happens to people in general when we fall in love, more and more time for this artificial intelligenceThis can cause you to neglect other aspects of your life.
“If we also add to this that these types of technologies are designed to create a slight dependency, that you always end up resorting to them before resorting to any other resource, be it finding information, interacting, solving problems, doing class work, etc., a dependency can arise which in turn becomes insulationThis is problematic because “for people who already have some problems with feeling lonely, this will make them feel worse and worse.”
Sex takes the stage
Generative AI has made its way into the realm of pornography, making things even more complicated. The main character of a pornographic video can become anyone, and this, logically, this is a crime unless you have the permission of the said person. There have even been disgusting cases of AI-generated child pornography.
Putting that aside, lighter AI pornography could be used. This may be another way to create pornographic videos in which the people featured have given their consent and human rights are not violated. However, like everything, it also carries certain risks. Not so much the viewing of pornography itself, but ability to interact with him.
“Artificial intelligence will not refuse anything,” explains a sexologist interviewed for this article. “If these dynamics learned during interactions with artificial intelligence are then extrapolated to real human relationships, it can make it more difficult for people to truly connect sexually. healthy and equal”
This has been happening for a long time in non-AI pornography.
“The lessons learned from traditional pornography cannot be extrapolated, they cannot replace sex education, and they cannot teach a person how to communicate properly.” Adding AI to the equation only complicates the situation as consent becomes blurred. The AI is not required to give consent, but in real life it is necessary. This can lead to frustration, but may also cause some users commit sexual assault in real lifefor not knowing how to respect the basic boundaries of any relationship.
And here the problem of addiction arises. “Human beings function largely by habit, and once we get into the habit of doing something, it becomes harder to change,” Marcilla begins. “So maybe if we get into the habit of watching pornography or sexting with a car, then when we try to do it differently, it will affect our body, our mind, our fantasies. Adapting to this will cost you more.“This happens even if we always reach orgasm through toys and try to do so through sex with another person. Or if we always do it with oral sex and want to try it with other practices. The brain gets used to it.”
In fact, it’s not just about people falling in love with AI…
AI has long been immersed in our romantic relationships. For example, for a long time there are dating apps which calculates compatibility between people. Thanks to artificial intelligence, this has been taken to a seemingly more advanced level. But can an algorithm really calculate love compatibility between two people? For Laura Marcilla, of course not.
“There are certain factors that are more related to this chemistry that cannot be measured in simple numbers,” the expert says. “And even if they could be measured, perhaps it would make more sense for people to develop critical thinking, some coherence with understanding, starting from the very beginning. self-knowledge of what I want, “What do I need and what are my limits in personal relationships.”
The machine can make mistakes, just like our intuition, logically too, but it will always be more useful to train this intuition. It looks really good in the film. Materialistsreleased this year. Apparent compatibility will not always mean a successful relationship. Depersonalizing relationships in this way can even be dangerous.
“Also, we may end up having very good relationships with people we may not be compatible with.” depending on how flexible we are about certain things. And with other people that we should theoretically be super compatible with because we might have the same tastes, the same goals, etc., so the spark might not happen anyway.”
In the end…
It is much more interesting to promote self-knowledge than to put the entire burden of starting a relationship on an AI.
Either way, Marcilla says the most likely thing is that while AI continues to advance, it won’t become a replacement for relationships, even in the future. And artificial intelligence can advance a lot, but something as old as love between two (or more) people can never be replaced by a machine. Sometimes the most primitive is the hardest to imitate, and this is a great example of that.
Source: Hiper Textual
